Die Hard: The Traditional Pig Slaughter

Pacma is a political party, the "animalist" party against animal mistreatment. It's been around since 2003 and has failed to make any real impact. It has never had any deputies in Congress or senators, but its vote has steadily increased. In this year's general election it scooped 1.19% of the vote for Congress, up from 0.87% in December 2015 and the 0.42% of 2011.

If it remains at the margins of the Spanish political system, does the increased share of the vote represent a greater appeal or has it simply been a protest? Both perhaps. It will never assume a significant role because of its essentially single-issue nature, but it does capture at least a sense of greater awareness of animal mistreatment, while it has also been to the fore in pressing for tougher action by the courts. With the aid of the Balearic association of lawyers for animal rights, Pacma and animal-rights organisations secured the first ever custodial sentence for animal mistreatment in Spain. In October last year, a Palma court upheld an eight-month sentence for the owner of a horse called Sorky. The owner had bludgeoned the horse to death after it performed badly during a trotting race at the Manacor course.

Cases of mistreatment do now appear fairly regularly in the local media, and animal welfare has been pushed up the political agenda by the left. In Palma, as an example, the Més councillor Neus Truyol has animal welfare as one of her three main responsibilities. That party (Més) may have been jolted into greater proactivity on animal rights by a former member - Guillermo Amengual. He is the main spokesperson for the campaign Mallorca Sense Sang (Mallorca Without Blood), which has led the move to outlaw bullfighting. He left Més to join the Esquerra Unida (United Left), as it was the only party to have a formal animal-rights' section.

Amengual is also the spokesperson for AnimaNaturalis, and in a newspaper chat over six years ago, the first question he was asked referred to "matances". This is the traditional annual slaughter (that's what the word means) of pigs. His answer, promoting vegetarianism, was that the AnimaNaturalis group was against all forms of animal processing (from birth to death), regardless of cultural or religious reasons.

The cultural aspect of the matances is something with which Pacma is now taking issue. It has released a video in support of its claim that the pig slaughter is one of the most "anachronistic" examples of Spain and its disagreeable attitudes towards animals.

The "matança" is about as old as it comes in Christian Mallorca. It clearly wouldn't have been around - or one would assume not - during the Muslim occupation. But it certainly was around at the time, post-conquest, of Ramon Llull. In the early fourteenth century, he referred to the matances and to the start of the season of the slaughter. Various writers of more modern times, such as the Archduke Louis Salvador in the nineteenth century, spoke about this cultural tradition.

The pig, where livestock farmers were concerned, hadn't been particularly popular until more intensive cultivation of figs led to a pig boom in the nineteenth century: figs were an easy means of fattening pigs quickly. Prior to this, it had been behind goats and sheep. However, the pig was ubiquitous in a domestic sense. Families would have one, or more than one, which was destined for the autumn slaughter and transformation into various pig products, of which sobrassada is the best known.

The slaughter itself would be an occasion for some celebration. It could go on for several days, depending on the size of the immediate population and therefore the number of pigs. It was deeply rooted in local culture, so much so that George Sand - who found plenty to take exception to in Mallorca - complained that the Mallorcans took more care of pigs than they did people.

It is perhaps the pig's misfortune that it is versatile in terms of how it can be transformed in a culinary fashion. And it was the various possibilities that made it so popular. One pig could satisfy a family's needs for several months, if the products were made correctly, and in the case of sobrassada, the addition of the local paprika provided excellent preservative qualities.

The matances are nowadays looked upon with fondness by traditionalists, who note how they survived the swine fever of 1956 and how they have made a comeback following the migrations to the coast that occurred because of the sixties' tourism boom. But this is the traditionalist's view. Not everyone shares it, and despite town hall requirements regarding the slaughter - it has to be performed in abattoirs and under strict food safety conditions - Pacma insists that there are still slaughters by non-professionals which do not conform to established procedure.

Pacma is therefore demanding that legislation on animal welfare be rigorously applied. It would seem, if only from a food safety point of view, that it should be. There are other forces, though, the traditional ones, which consider the pig with reverence: adored and primed in order to stave off hunger. Some traditions die hard.

The Strange Case Of The Muro Bullfight Protest

I have had cause to mention protests on many an occasion. Apart from the large protests, those connected with major strikes or the "indignados", there have been more local affairs. Recently, and just to take one example, there was a protest in Puerto Alcúdia against the new beach path.

The Spanish Constitution defends the right to protest, but Spanish law places certain limits on this right, these limits being not dissimilar to other countries. A plan to stage a protest has to be given in advance and permission sought. The minimum period is ten days, the maximum is thirty days. In the case of what is called "emergency", the period can be as short as 24 hours, and I can think of one example of when permission would have been granted very swiftly - the protest against terrorism that followed immediately after the Palmanova bomb and the death of the two Guardia Civil officers.

This permission has to be sought from the government's delegations, so in the case of Mallorca, this means Teresa Palmer and the government's delegation in the Balearics. There are reasons why a demonstration can be refused, and they are pretty obvious ones - incitement to cause crime and the carrying of weapons, the presence of those wearing paramilitary uniforms (so, by implication, extremist groups), and the potential for there to be a risk to members of the public or property.

This sounds perfectly reasonable, but then one comes to protests which, for whatever reason, don't go ahead and to protests which do go ahead but without having complied with requirements. In Muro town, there has been an example of both of these, and they both relate to the town's bullfight.

PACMA is a political party that defends animal rights. It was due, as it has in the past, to have staged a protest in Muro against the bullfight during the recent Sant Joan fiestas. It didn't. As I understand reports (well one, because there has been little obvious other reporting), PACMA cancelled the protest, as opposed to having had it cancelled. I am not entirely sure why it cancelled the demo. Its website and Facebook page seem to make no reference to the Muro bullfight this year, to a protest or to its cancellation. It is said, though, that the original request for the protest was put in as it should have been, i.e. in accordance with the time frame.

For whatever reason, PACMA pulled out, which is something of a mystery. In its stead, another organisation, ICA, decided to stage its own protest. However, it didn't receive permission. Indeed, the day after it did stage a protest, it received notification that the protest had been denied. Because the protest was not approved, the Guardia Civil deemed it to be illegal, took details of four protesters and they will be subject to fines (which will probably be 301 euros; and no, I don't know why it is 301 euros).

There is due to be a music benefit event to raise funds to pay these anticipated fines, assuming they are levied. An example of a 301 euros fine for an unauthorised protest in Mallorca was that handed to the then president of the local television and radio station IB3 in December last year (which is why I know the 301 euros sum).

A number of issues arise from all this. One is why PACMA apparently cancelled its protest. A second is why ICA went ahead with its, knowing it was not authorised. A third is why the protest was subsequently found to have been refused, and a fourth is why fines might be levied. As far as the latter is concerned, well this is the strict letter of the law, but one must ask: have there been other unauthorised protests of a different sort which have escaped sanction? Perhaps there have been, but then one comes to the second point. Did ICA go ahead with its protest expecting what has resulted?

In the past, there has been evidence of different animal-rights groups not singing from the same hymn sheet. This happened, for instance, with a protest in Fornalutx against the bull run. So, might it be that there is some sort of battle between these different groups?

While ICA's protest might, I say might, have been a publicity stunt, one that was undertaken with full knowledge of the consequences, there is still the matter of the government's delegate having refused permission. On what grounds? Yes there have been incidents in the past, amounting to little more than insults being hurled, but could an anti-bullfight protest be truly looked upon as posing a safety risk?

It's a strange one. On the face of it, and despite the lack of authorisation, sanctions against the protesters seem a bit harsh. But otherwise, there is much about the whole affair that doesn't quite make sense.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.